A Winter road trip...........

 

I thought I'd share some photos from our little road trip we did last week. We drove to Taupo the first day which is about 3 1/2 to 4 hours drive from Whangamata. We had glorious weather all week, just perfect for driving in the winter. In Taupo we very lucky to be offered the chance to stay for free in the newly built wing of the Hilton hotel so of course we jumped at the chance. To our surprise when we booked in we had the run of TWO apartments so the girls had an apartment all to themselves with a TV 'each'. As you can see from the above photo we had a beautiful view from our apartment  over Lake Taupo and out to the snow covered mountains beyond.

Huka falls is a must see attraction near Taupo. These falls  are on the Waikato River which is fed directly from Lake Taupo. The water is very clear and appears blue from reflecting blue light with the air bubbles intensifying the blue colour.  

The footbridge spanning the river which is at its narrowest width of approx 15 metres from a usual 100 metres. When standing on this bridge you can feel it moving slightly from the water moving rapidly below.

After spending 2 nights in Taupo we drove on to Wellington to catch up with friends that we don't see often enough. Just south of Taupo is the desert road which is intermittently closed at this time of the year when there is heavy snow fall. Thankfully not on the days we drove on it. We stopped about halfway to take in the beautiful sight of  Mount Ngaruahoe, New Zealand's most active volcano.

And Mount Ruapehu in its snowy splendour. Mount Ruapehu is the largest volcano in the Tongariro National Park and is host to New Zealand's largest skifields 'Turoa' and 'Whakapapa'.

And I'm afraid I took no photos in Wellington as the girls and I were too busy shopping, going to movies ( Eclipse) and having fun in one of Wellington's best attractions 'Te Papa'. We did have lunch with the lovely Lara from 'Sew many stitches later' though. So nice to meet up fellow bloggers!

I'll back to post soon about what I've been creating lately.

Linking up with Katie's Road trip post here!